Riverside rocks Capital 73-48

Riverside's Marcus Reed launches a jump shot against Capital. Reed surpassed 1,000 points for his high school career in the game.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- On Thursday night, upstart Riverside hoped for a statement win when it hosted Kanawha Valley-power South Charleston.

But after watching a 15-point first half-lead evaporate in a six-point loss to the Black Eagles, the Warriors headed into Friday's Hoops Classic looking to blow off a little steam.

Oh those poor nets at the Charleston Civic Center. So much for the building's reputation as a shooter's nightmare.

The Warriors (4-1) poured in 11 of their 21 3-point attempts and shot 58 percent from the floor in a dominating 73-48 win over Capital in the nightcap.

Marcus Reed scored a game-high 25 points on 10-of-14 shooting, including four 3-pointers, passing the 1,000-point plateau for his career in the process.

"[Riverside] Coach [Dusty Herscher] told me to attack more since last night I really wasn't attacking and getting everyone involved," Reed said. "We had a shoot-around this morning too and I tried to get a lot of shots up. I guess it carried over to the game tonight."

A bulk of Reed's points came in the midst of a big run in the second quarter that turned a four-point Warriors lead into a 37-27 margin at the break.

Reed scored the last 13 points of the first half for Riverside after Josh Butcher got the Warriors rolling in the first quarter with three 3-pointers of his own.

Butcher ended the game with 16 points as the duo combined for 8-of-12 shooting from 3-point range and 16 for 23 from the field.

"We had to stay up and stay with intensity after [Thursday] night," Herscher said. "We played really well. We moved the ball really well throughout the whole game. We made the extra pass, made the extra assist, drove and kicked, hit the boards, played defense - it looked really good tonight."

Reed is a four-year starter but Friday marked his first win over the Cougars.

In fairness, the season has been a bit of a struggle early for Capital (2-4), although the Cougars came into Friday having won two of their last three.

Coach Carl Clark declined to comment, but Herscher didn't hesitate to express just how big the win was for Riverside's program.

"They're athletic, they're good, and they have one of the best coaching staffs in the state if not of all time," Herscher said. "It's a historically great program and to beat the name 'Capital,' that's a great win. That team is good. They beat GW the other night who everybody says is down also but these teams will be competing at the end of the year."

Riverside was close to killing the South Charleston/Capital two-headed monster this week, and while no coach or player will admit to moral victories, Reed said he and his team walked away from Thursday's loss a better team.

After Friday's performance, it'd be hard for anyone to argue.

"I think before the [South Charleston] game we might've been a little confident, but we weren't as confident as we were during the game after we got that big lead," Reed said. "I don't think everybody believed that we could actually play with them and I think we showed everybody in the state that we're legit this season."

Brad Grose scored a team-best 14 points for Capital on 7-of-12 shooting while the rest of the team combined for just 14 for 53. The Cougars never led and got no closer than 10 points in the second half.